For the first time in over 30 years at the 2017 Finn Gold Cup in Balaton Gerardo Seeliger (right) is reunited with Hungarian Finn sailor György Fináczy who rescued Seeliger from drowning during the 1970 Finn Europeans in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. The pair later started the Palamos Olympic Christmas Race by passing the holiday match racing each other in a fleet of two


Find me in the boat park


The new candidate for World Sailing president has zero interest in badges and blazers. Carlos Pich gives Gerardo Seeliger a pre-match grilling


His presence in a local Finn regatta seemed to me the best scenario to speak to Gerardo Seeliger, just before he confirmed his candidacy for president of World Sail- ing. As it was an especially hot weekend I thought that travelling by train from Barcelona would spare me traffic problems and also the 50-minute journey would allow me to put my ideas in some order before our meeting. I recognise that I am a little ‘anti-establishment’


the train in El Balís determined to talk to Gerardo Seeliger with no prejudices for or against the man who is a ‘sailor’s favourite’ for sailing’s most senior role. Being Spanish, I had memories from my


in anything


related to sailing federations, after looking on for many years as one by one most of the best and most effective managers have failed to reach the highest positions of responsibility. Nevertheless, I stepped off


youth about Gerardo Seeliger, although we never a shared a course area racing nor interviews working. In El Balís we meet in a deserted boat park, due to the early hour, before looking for a bar where we can take refuge from the sun, then sit down and talk over a café cortado… with my phone the only witness. Seahorse: Can you briefly summarise your career in sailing? Gerardo Seeliger: I started sailing in Arenys de Mar, 2km from here, in Vauriens, 420s and 470s, but the Finn was my vocation. Supported by the club and coached by Ib Andersen, I competed in the Munich Olympic Games of 1972. Four years later I was beaten in the Spanish Olympic Finn trials for Montreal by José Luis Doreste, after which I withdrew from top-level


competitive sailing and took over the administration of the Finn class where I was president for 18 years (Doreste went on to win the Finn gold medal in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul). In 1999 the president of World Sailing


Paul Henderson asked me to leave the Finn class to take care of the new 49er Olympic class and I was president for eight years! Then I chaired the 29er class for six years. I also worked on both of Pedro Campos’s America’s Cup challenges in San Diego. In wider terms I maintain good relations


with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) where I was executive director of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). And I have recently been enjoying sailing the Finn again… SH:Has the boat changed a lot since your first days in the class? GS: I must confess that back then I was eventually broken by the Finn because of the relentless physical demand – it was a brutal boat. But starting again, the masts 


SEAHORSE 41


PHOTOS ROBERT DEAVES


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